Monday, March 26, 2007

Okay, I promised pictures, and now you shall have them. It's late and I should be in bed, so all you get is the pics, though. No news. Even if I had some.

So, where to start? Shall I start with... ...my first finished skein of yarn from my new wheel? It's a heathered grey and purple wool I got from Mangham Manor Farm. Not particularly great quality, but it ends up pretty. Note the ball of roving still left to spin. Here's a closeup of the skein: But since I really think I'm ADD, instead of finishing that massive ball of roving, I moved on already to...

My natural brown carded merino. This is wheel-spun and navajo plied also on the wheel. I'm a big fan of navajo plying now. It's like crochet on a larger scale!

My medieval-spindle spun merino. 2 ply. Not so great, but now I'm working on spinning very fine on that spindle and it seems to be working a lot better. Wait till I show you the results of that... I'm thinking socks.

So my pics are not as good as Pam's but I hope you've enjoyed them. A little bit of mid-week yarn pr0n. And I can't wait to make more...

Okay so I didn't post pictures. I still haven't downloaded them from my camera. But as it turns out I don't have to go to rehearsal tonight so I'll do that. Meanwhile, though, I figure I'll update about the weekend.

First off, Pam is evil. EEEEEVIL. She alerted me to the fact that Knit Happens had Alchemy yarns on sale. I now have three skeins of Synchronicity coming to me, waiting for a project. Maybe I should join that KAL that Pam joined. The stash-building one. *sigh*

And then the reason that I didn't go ahead and post my pics this weekend is that I went away for my birthday to an SCA event back "home." Even entered the A&S novice competition with some of my merino spun on my medieval replica spindle! Also, started seeing how fine I could spin on said spindle. Wow. I have thread :) I really miss that barony, because there's so much emphasis on A&S down there. Unlike up here, where there's one A&S meeting per month. As opposed to once a week at "home." Plus, all my SCA friends are there, and they're wonderful people, and I am so sad that I don't get to play with them anymore. That's the real reason, but the lack of A&S up here makes it more difficult to make new friends, which would ease the pain a little. Oh listen to me, going all emo...

Anyway, I did not buy any yarn all weekend *snif* but I did get a knitted hood, which I am going to reverse engineer. It's really more like a head sock. It's a tube that then increases at the bottom to cover the shoulders. Bad description, I know. But it's really fun and nifty and I want different colors to go with all my garb! Yeah, me = huge dork. And sock head.

So, in summary: Pam is evil, SCA is good, my beloved home barony is better, and I need to post pictures. Sounds about right.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

So yesterday I needed to play for a bit, so I pulled out the small bag of alpaca top that I got from The Woolery and started it on my spinning wheel. I know alpaca is reputed to be not the easiest fiber to spin, but oh my GOD it was a dream. Long draw, inchworm, straight from the whole length of top... btw have I mentioned that I break spinning rules? A lot? Yeah, I do. And I'm not at all ashamed. Who wants to spend time pre-drafting when there's spinning to be done and awesome experimental results to be had?

Also, in the car on the way to our site visit for work today, I started swatching my skein of Euroflax. I got it at Stitch DC with grand plans for a small capelet. Well, I've decided to sacrifice the whole skein to, as Amy Singer calls them, "Geeky things." Swatches of all different gauges, stitch patterns, and stages of washing/blocking. I decided I needed to do this in order to properly design the perfect linen capelet for my beautiful vintage clasp that Mom got me for Christmas. Anyway, that linen is wonderful to work with, if a bit thin for the comfort of my hands (I tend to be tense, so my hands end up cramping), and I would've finished a couple of swatches if my eyes hadn't decided to hurt. Like a mofo. Either I need new glasses (well ok yes I need new glasses) or I'm getting a sinus infection. Stupid sinuses. Keeping me from crocheting. Evil.

Tearing me away from it has been tough. I even started putting it together right away. Dad has pictures of me drinking wine and assembling the thing. The wine definitely helped... I've gotta get the pictures from him, but then I'll post them if anybody's interested.

Anyway, I've already got two full skeins of yarn, and I've only had it for three days. Can we say addicted? I went to spinning guild today and had to talk myself into bringing my spindles instead of my wheel. Cos I know it's a Traveller, but let's face it, nothing's more portable than a drop spindle. But as soon as I got home I sat down at my wheel and finished a test skein of that short brown merino I got with my medieval spindle. Yeah, addicted.

Meanwhile I have costume stuff to work on. Not as fun as spinning. And I'm afraid I'll never crochet again. Or knit. I hope the novelty of spinning will wear off just a bit, just enough that I'll get back to my crochet. At the moment, though, I'd much rather make yarn than use it!

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Well no spinning today, but I knit a single solitary row of a scarf I've started, using needles and yarn I got on Saturday. One row, how pathetic.

On the upside, though, I started another new project! See, at Stitches I fell in love with this really simple Philosopher's Wool kit and simply had to have it. It's their striped shawl and cropped pullover kit, in the "Night Sky" colorway. Here's a link to it. It's wonderful. And so I started working on it. If I'm lucky I'll get it finished soon enough to wear it before the weather gets too warm for it.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Okay so I'm no photographer, but I have taken pictures of my new spindle. I also have pics to share of the scarf I made as a commission for a friend. So here we go...

First, spindle!

And now, the scarf. I crocheted it in Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL (50% Alpaca, 50% Merino). Such a luscious yarn. The stitch I used is one I found in the Harmony Guide of 100 Crochet Stitches. Okay enough with the talk, here are the pics:

Fringe!

And because the colonial blue went so well with Mom's botanical prints...

Now I just have to finish my long green fingerless gloves (yeah yeah, stop laughing Pam! ;P) and get to my Philosopher's Wool shawl. Whee!

...so much for that. My medieval spindle that I was so excited about is cool, but being very light it doesn't spin for long. And the merino sliver I got has a freakishly short staple length (seriously, about 1.5"... that's not right), so with the two factors combined, I had a hell of a time trying to spin last night. I finally gave up on the wool and pulled out my silk hankies, which worked a lot better because at least when the spindle stopped and reversed itself, I had time to catch it without my roving breaking off. And the more I wound on, the longer it spun.